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Book Reviews by Connie Bennett.

Book Review: Everyone Out Here Knows

Oregon Reads

It starts with little things.  “Flowers jump from the tracks of Big Foot all over the uplands.”  William Stafford’s poem “Everyone Out Here Knows” was originally published in “Starting with Little Things,” a 1983 teaching guide for poetry writing in the classroom.

As part of the celebration of the centennial of Stafford’s birth, the poem has been reimagined as a delightful picture book.   It has been well received -  endorsed by Govenor Kitzhaber, chosen to
represent Oregon at the National Book Festival, and recommended by Ursula LeGuin as a “lovely gift-book for child or adult”.

Considered one of America's most respected, accessible, and widely published poets, William Stafford taught for decades at Portland’s Lewis and Clark College, served as poet laureate of the United States in 1970-71 and as the poet laureate of Oregon from 1974 to 1989.

This charming new version of Stafford’s poem is illustrated by Portland artist Angelina Marino-Heidel, whose luminous murals and sculptures enhance many public places throughout Oregon – as well as being featured on the television series Portlandia.   Marino-Heidel’s brilliant illustrations evoke the richly varied woodland ferns and mosses, rapids and the shadows of mysterious places.  I love the interaction of tiny details with bold shapes in her art.  Labeled end papers help readers identify familiar northwest fauna such as sorrel and fiddlehead, trillium and skunk cabbage.

Credit also goes to Portland scholar Tim Barnes of the Friends of William Stafford for his work in conceiving and compiling the book, and for assembling the fun Bigfoot notes and references at the back.  Barnes worked as a poet in the Artists-in-Education Program throughout Oregon.  He credits that experience with providing the original inspiration to more broadly share the imagination and wonder evoked by Stafford’s poetry.

Listen.  You can hear it, too:  “Rivers that swing wide are going around mysterious places: you can stand there and feel the tug of Big Foot’s world.”

Copyright 2014 KLCC.

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